Prof. Ram Puniyani explains the truth behind PM Modi and BJP projecting Sardar Patel as its icon

Hyderabad: The BJP and its mother organisation RSS which had no role in the freedom struggle for Independence, is desperately trying to malign Nehruvian-era by choosing Sardar Patel as its icon.

In this attempt, PM Modi and the Sangh parivar is spreading fake propaganda that issues of Kashmir and Pakistan problem that we are facing today is because of the wrong decisions taken by Nehru. In this way, the BJP is projecting Sardar Patel as its icon, whose ideology was completely different than that of sangh parivar and its political arm, BJP.

The BJP has been repeatedly targeting Nehru for the problem of Kashmir and partition during independence. They say that, it were Nehru’s decisions because of which the current crisis in Kashmir and the problem of Pakistan is prevailing. They also say that, had Sardar Patel been the first Prime Minister of India, the situation would have been different and the whole Kashmir would have been part of India.

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But, historians like Professor Ram Puniyani oppose such meaningless statements of BJP and says that, the BJP doesn’t have anybody to claim as its icon who had fought or participated in anti-British movements.

Moreover, V D Savarkar, one of the ideologues of Sangh Parivar, once said that “there are two nations in India, one is Hindu and the other is Muslim” referring that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together.

It was not Nehru who was responsible for the partition of India, but the colonial policy of divide and rule, and others like Jinnah bringing two nation theory on the platform of freedom struggle, divided the country.

Nehru was even doubtful of cabinet mission plan which gave more autonomy for individual states. Nehru and Patel were on the same wavelength with respect to the freedom struggle and the unity of India. They wanted the strong Centre for better administration of the country.
The communal forces were becoming strong during 1940’s which articulated the sentiments that Pakistan for Muslims and India for Hindus.

When Mountbatten proposed that India should be partitioned, the decision of Congress came much later. The first person from Congress to accept the proposal of partition was Sardar Patel, a major leader of the Congress party. This was clearly mentioned in the books written by Maulana Azad and MJ Akbar. In both the cases, matters of Kashmir and partition of India, Congress had minimal role in the form of accepting it.

Narendra Modi’s another party man Jaswant Singh had written a book on the same question of Jinnah, partition and Independence in which he highlighted the role of Sardar Patel in the partition of India. This book was banned by Narendra Modi in Gujarat when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

All the falsehood coming from people like Modi and the whole Hindu nationalist politics are basically far from truth. The reality is that partition was a tragedy which was imposed on the sub-continent because of communal politics and British policy of divide and rule.
Administratively, Nehru and Patel had to accept the decision, something which cannot be avoided.